Effect of flow-induced shear stress on migration of human trophoblast cells

The Effects of Hemodynamic Force on Embryonic Development

“…These data therefore raise the possibility that the hemodynamic force exerted by maternal blood flow plays a role in directing cytotrophoblasts to invade and remodel the maternal arteries in the endometrium. This hypothesis is supported by the in vivo observation that over time, cytotrophoblasts migrate progressively further upstream within the maternal arterioles that they invade; in contrast, after cytotrophoblasts invade venules, they do not migrate any further [7,67].…”

“…The oxygen gradient created by this hypoxic environment then induces cytotrophoblasts to extend from the embryo toward the more oxygen‐rich tissues in the uterus [49,103]. After spanning this gap, these cytotrophoblasts will invade the uterine wall, and finally reach the spiral arteries of the endometrium; there, they undergo an epithelial to endothelial transition, and change their expression of a wide array of integrins so that they may intercalate into the walls of the maternal vessels [7,26,29,49,67,103]. In doing so, these syncytial trophoblast cells thereby invade the maternal vasculature and remodel it so that maternal blood flow is rerouted into the intervillous space of the developing placenta [26,67,103].…”

“…Several studies suggest that hemodynamic force regulates this process by which the cytotrophoblasts remodel the spiral arteries. First, cytotrophoblasts have been shown to be mechanosensitive in vitro [67,101,123]. Intriguingly, shear stress upregulates the expression of ß1 integrin in cytotrophoblasts, a molecule which is also known to be upregulated as the cells invade maternal vessels [123].…”

“…Intriguingly, shear stress upregulates the expression of ß1 integrin in cytotrophoblasts, a molecule which is also known to be upregulated as the cells invade maternal vessels [123]. Shear stress can also induce the motility of cytotrophoblasts in culture [67,123,124]. Furthermore, endothelial cells that are cocultured with cytotrophoblasts are able to further enhance the degree of cytotrophoblast migration, particularly in the direction opposite to flow [124].…”

Go with the Flow—Trophoblasts in Flow Culture

“…In addition, human- and animal-derived trophoblasts were subjected to fluidic flow culture, using rather diverse experimental setups ( Table 1 and Table 2 ). While used trophoblast-derived cell lines include the choriocarcinoma cell lines JAR [ 14 ], JEG-3 [ 15 ], and BeWo [ 16 , 17 ], as well as the Simian Virus 40 (SV40)-transformed trophoblast cell lines HTR-8/SVneo and SGHPL-4 [ 14 , 18 ], primary trophoblasts have been used after isolation from first trimester [ 19 , 20 ] and term placenta [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Besides human trophoblasts, primary macaque trophoblasts [ 23 , 24 ] have been used due to anatomical similarities between human and macaque placental tissues.…”